bfstats

Rarely see these on eBay, and I'd prefer to trade for them rather than buy. Anyone willing and able?

My hope is that whoever wins this auction (assuming ANYONE would bid that much for something almost entirely UNSEEN) will be sufficiently connected to our community to be willing to share photos of materials of such, ahem, "value". Definitely sounds like museum stuff to me, but who would care besides US???

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDe...ot_id=159374916 Not mine. You'll have to register with the site to see the description. Not much in the way of photos, but the list of materials is intriguing. Anyone have $150,000 - $250,000 handy?

Nice to hear from you, Brian! Glad to know you're still with us. Any projects in the works?

Thanks for posting the pix of your homemade boxes. If it weren't so much work and I had a high-quality printer, I'd tackle the box-making biz myself. Then again, it's good to have opportunities to support those who care enough about the hobby to be so dedicated and creative as to construct such professional-looking work. I hope you feel encouraged enough by this thread to keep at it! Also, here's an updated picture of The Wall. The previous was from 1986.

Take it from someone known for "over-appreciating" boxes, your collection is most impressive, ESPECIALLY because of the boxes you made yourself. With the help of CPUWIZ and ShyOne I've managed to augment my collection with boxes for games that never had one, so it's easy to respect your efforts to make sure each of your games is well-represented by an artistic box. Please do us all a favor and post pix of your homemade box fronts and backs. Ever consider producing them in quantity and selling? You could count on me to be a paying customer. Your creations would make excellent additions to The Wall!

Are you aware that Brian Prescott of Crazy Valet and Vault Assault fame created a hack of Kaboom? It's a cartridge intended just for practice so you can play as long as you like without losing all your lives. He had some copies for sale at one of the recent Philly Classics - 2002, I think. Black print on a white label. Haven't seen one anywhere since. Anyway, I think Brian deserves a vote for the contribution of his homebrews, although I have never seen his collection.

Since this encourages votes for those with serious collections AND for those who have contributed to the community, I nominate the following, in no particular order: Cassidy and Nicole Nolen CPUWIZ and ShyOne Marc Oberhauser Tempest rolenta Albert and Alex Sean, John, and Joe, the Digital Press guys Randy Crihfield Lee Krueger Curt Vendel Having a big collection is great, but it is the contributions from people like those listed above that have formed this community, sustained it with their passion for the hobby, and given it substance. Those of us who "merely" collect owe much to those who keep this cool hobby alive.

The Rarity Guide is missing scans of the color Fun With Numbers box and manual. Are you able and willing to accomodate?

Marc, After having bought some of your boxes at CGE, I know these are professional quality. Please keep up the good work! What other box ideas have you come up with?

Based on this sale compared to mine (Quadrun cart only), the box and manual are worth $735. Anyone care to comment on the perception that packaging and instructions are more valuable than the games they represent? Maybe I should keep the carts and sell The Wall!

I spoke to Joe Santulli about this after he and Sean and John acquired the CommaVid copyrights and materials. It was the composer of that letter, J.M. Bornstein himself, who told them no more than 20 were actually made.

Great post, Marco. It's fun to see so many unusual items. My two cents... Not sure how rare these are, but I don't recall seeing them anywhere else: Atari Coupon Calendar Data Age Mindscape Record Decathlon Glove (note Bruce Jenner signature) Marco made reference to a CommaVid letter that discussed the number of MagiCards and Video Lifes produced. Here is the letter and other correspondence from CommaVid. These items are just pieces of paper but it is interesting to watch collectors handle them as if they were made of crystal. Not sure how many BOXED River Patrols there are. Only one I've seen in addition to mine was at the CGE museum. The significance of this one is that it came directly from Tiger Electronics. The receipt serves as an excellent Certificate of Authenticity. Yes, this is a plug. I'm planning to sell my Tigervision titles in the not-too-distant future. Back to correspondence, this letter from Answer Software is a product of my efforts in 1984 to acquire Gauntlet and Confrontation... ...which I was never able to do. UNTIL, at my request, CPUWIZ made this for me: As far as I know, it is the only one he made, and it IS my most prized Atari 2600 possession.

Home Run? Please. If you think Home Run's really one of the absolute worst Atari 2600 games, you're not looking very hard. Actually, I scanned the entire AA list just to be sure I wasn't missing something. Call it a personal pet peeve. Atari annoyed me that they would even try to do baseball on the 2600. Then they made up for it with RealSports and Super Baseball. Then there's Pete Rose. Credit to the programmers who got so much more out of the system than was originally intended. Which makes the weak efforts look even worse. Hence Mythicon, etc.

I'll agree with the VAST majority that Froggo, Data Age (the first 5 anyway), and Mythicon were ripoffs, literally and financially. A few others worthy of disgust: Home Run - if it wasn't TRYING to emulate baseball, it might be okay. Coconuts - reverse Kaboom with poor control response. Sneak 'n' Peek - Cute once and ONLY once. Dishaster - The tune will have you ripping your own head off in 2 minutes. Fire Spinner - what IS this game? Does anyone know?

Due to the low quality of the photo, I can see why you would ask that, but no, those are Imagic boxes. I have no Zellers boxes in my collection. Sorry.

Here's the book you are referring to: Dave and I have been friends for years and, yes, he was kind enough to allow me to contribute to the book. Learn more about Dave's contributions to the video game industry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Ellis_(game_designer) ...and here: http://www.davesclassicarcade.com/

To CRAZY CLIMBER, thanks for remembering The Wall. That photo was taken in 1986. It occurs to me I may not have posted an updated photo. Howard Scott Warshaw was kind enough to do that for me when we met at Philly Classic in '04. Check this: http://www.onceuponatari.com/news/3_21_04.html To OMEGAMATRIX, you will notice in the photo on Howard's site that Video Life is 3 boxes to the right of my left elbow. It has since been traded... To CASSIDY NOLEN, you deserve a public THANK YOU for your support and friendship.

http://cgi.ebay.com/QUADRUN-VIDEO-GAME-MAG...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/CRAZY-CLIMBER-VIDEO-GA...1QQcmdZViewItem

1983, 14 pages. The inside front cover is a 3-page foldout... "Take a peek at PORKY'S" ...so it must have been published just prior to release of the game. No other strange titles or vaporware are mentioned.

Bank Heist was originally titled Roaring 20's. Guess Fox thought the rename would be more attractive in the 80's. Crash Dive was originally Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but licensing issues forced the rename. Turmoil was a port of the first commercial game programmed by Mark Turmell. Not based on a movie.

My very first online experience came about when I created and ran fantasy baseball and football leagues. Hence, Baseball and Football STATistics, or... bfstats

Fall of 1984, well after the crash, Kay-Bee Toys had a bin full of "discontinued" 2600 titles (what WASN'T discontinued then?!). Many of the games in the bin were grey-box Atari re-releases. BUT, there were also 6 copies of LOCHJAW at $6.99 each. I thought to myself, I have Shark Attack, why do I need Lochjaw??? Those were the days...

Awesome job of display, Cas. The perfect location - straight ahead as you come down the stairs! Marco, I second Cassidy's request to see your collection organized, photographed, and posted. We would ALL be missing something important if we didn't get to see it someday.